Accused Fort Hood Shooter Nidal Hasan Has Released A Statement To Fox News

Speaking directly to the U.S. media for the first time time since the 2009 Fort Hood attack, accused shooter Nidal Hasan issued a statement to Fox News on Saturday in which he claims the U.S. is at war with Islam.

Hasan does not directly address the attack that killed 13 and injured 32, but instead accuses the United States of waging war on Muslims and expressing regret for the years he spent in the Army.

“My complicity was on behalf of a government that openly acknowledges that it would hate for the law of Almighty Allah to be the supreme law of the land,” Hasan said in the statement. At one point, he asks, rhetorically, if the supposed war on Islam is a reality. “You bet it is,” he says. “I participated in it.”

The statement is reportedly over six pages long and begins with Hasan apologizing to “believers” and “the innocent”, asking for forgiveness and prayers from fellow Muslims after his participation in what he calls “the illegal and immoral aggression against Muslims, their religion and their lands.”

Fox News has requested an interview with Hasan to address the Fort Hood shooting. There is still no word that he has accepted. Hasan has spoken to Al-Jazeera via telephone, and transcripts of this conversations will be used as evidence at his murder trial.

Hasan is representing himself at trial. The judge in the case has ruled that he may not argue that he was defending Taliban leaders in Afghanistan in a “defense of others” strategy. The court martial is set to begin August 6.